Not a new topic, but one worth some renewed and inspired thought by the City Fathers and Planners perhaps.....
Methodism is a movement in the Christian Church that seeks the Kingdom of God through personal discipleship and social justice in the name of Jesus Christ.
The founder of the Methodist movement,
John Wesley, first visited Birmingham in 1738. From that time onwards, Methodism has served the city of Birmingham and its people.
John Wesley, founder of Methodist churches, had acquired freehold land in Cherry Street in 1782 and built a little chapel which he opened on 7 July 1782. One hundred years later, Birmingham Council put a compulsory purchase order on this building, thus providing the means to enable the trustees to build their larger church elsewhere.
The new church could hold one thousand worshippers. It stood in Lower Priory and was called the Central Hall. The Methodist Conference elected a minister, well known for his musical talents, to lead the Birmingham Mission, the Reverend Luke Wiseman. It opened on 8 September 1887. Mission work flourished and within ten years the Hall was having to hire the large room at the Midland Institute for Sunday services as well as providing them at the Hall. Trustees were again faced with finding more space.
The Corporation Scheme to clear the city of some of its worst slums meant that land was now available opposite the law courts.
The Reverend Dr F Luke Wiseman had previously opposed plans to build a theatre there. Now he had a new interest in the site. So here was built the Methodist Central Hall at 196-224 Corporation Street. It is a three storey
red brick and terracotta Grade II* listed building with a distinctive tower at the northern end of Corporation Street, opposite the
Victoria Law Courts, and is fortunately located within the Steelhouse
Conservation Area. The terracotta was manufactured by the renowned firm of
Gibbs and Canning Limited of Tamworth, which also produced decorative works for 179-203 Corporation Street and the interior of the Victoria Law Courts in Birmingham and the Natural History Museum in London. Its main hall seats 2,000 and it has over thirty other rooms including three school halls. It cost £96,165 to build. The street level has twelve bays of shops (four with their original fronts). The building also runs along Ryder Street and has more original shop fronts. It was built 1903-4 by architects Ewan Harper & James A. Harper.
The new Central Hall thus opened on 16 September 1903. The Methodist Conference had decided some years before that its churches should be beautiful places, especially, its Hall. It did not feel that the gin palaces should be the only places that offered decoration and beauty.
The main worship area of the Hall has ornate columns floor to ceiling. Two stained glass windows are at the back, while at the front is a unique German organ with rows of seats in front for the choir. The room is enormous and very beautiful. It has a narrow corridor on the outside, encircling it on three sides with mosaic walls and floors. Small rooms lead off at right angles to the corridor which were used for all the Hall's various works. The small rooms, a large hall and kitchen facilities were available for hire to help offset the Mission's costs. Mission work was varied, projects grew, projects changed, new ideas came along, increasing needs meant the Mission had to flexible and quick to respond.
Work was not confined to within the city but branched out to areas of Aston, Nechells and Hockley. In the early nineties it also worked in areas of Kingsbury, Kingstanding, Perry Common and Ladywood, and later in Alvechurch, Tysley and Sheldon.
DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA non-conformist churches helped provide much needed aid to the poor, in what seems to have been a two-way relationship offering benefits to all. The church offered food, clothing, shelter and health care and, in return, they received the pooris trust, faith and gratitude which inevitably led to increased attendances at Sunday services, conversions and memberships.
The basement of the Hall is a maze of corridors with doors leading to what are now shops on the frontage. These corridors were open to provide shelter with hot chocolate and toast to the beggars and street sellers. The Hall was open day and night for religious services and prayer groups as well as temperance meetings, Boys' Brigade, Girls' clubs, Mothers' meetings, singing, drama, knitting, sewing, etc. The Mothers' meetings started a savings club and a clothing club. Money saved could go towards medical expenses or food when there was no work. Anyone donating to the clothing club would regularly be given clothes or material to make their own.
Staff at the Hall were also available at night. They were often asked to sit with a dying person and to give words of comfort to the bereaved. Sisters were often asked to be present at the birth of a child. Mision work went on regardless of hours. But with migration of folk to the outskirts of our City, and dwindling Church attendances, it graduallyfell into a spiral of disrepair and neglect. Security at the hall, especially the tower, had to be increased however, after an intoxicated man went to the top of the tower and jumped off subsequently being killed on impact[SUP].[/SUP]
In 1991, the Methodist Church was converted into a nightclub, however, since its closure in 2002, the building has remained empty and fallen into serious disrepair[SUP]. [/SUP]The building has been the subject of proposals to be converted into an office building. The first of such was submitted in 2001, only to be withdrawn. Planning applications to convert the building into
apartments have also been rejected by
Birmingham City Council on the basis that original internal features will be destroyed. However, the council has since given planning consent to a proposal to convert the building into apartments. It is to be referred to the Local Government Office.
But I note now it is still abandoned and awaits it’s dubious fate once more….fingers crossed....
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=39894&highlight=Central+Hall
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=42137&highlight=Central+Hall
